AuthorTopic: 230watt 7R moving head - bulb? (Read 490 times)

Hello everyone,Iíve had a pair of 230 W moving heads for about a year now, they have worked flawlessly. Naturally, I was setting up for a New Yearís event and I had the hanging off of my back truss, Sound check and re-programming some of the fixtures to align properly, everything was working fine. Prior to show time, my first light fixture/moving head still moves and I can see that the internal goboís and color selection is moving within the unit, but there is no light coming out. All the rest of the light fixtures worked perfectly fine the rest of the evening. This is the first time Iíve ever encountered something like this.

Unfortunately I didnít have the proper tools to completely open up the cases of where the lightbulb is located and I didnít smell anything out of the ordinary. My first instinct is that the lightbulb has gone out?.... However I wonít know until a week from now when I get back into town.

It had close to 50 hours of work time on the original lightbulb. Is this something thatís pretty common with some of these light fixtures?

Any additional information would be greatly helpful.

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Hello everyone,Iíve had a pair of 230 W moving heads for about a year now, they have worked flawlessly. Naturally, I was setting up for a New Yearís event and I had the hanging off of my back truss, Sound check and re-programming some of the fixtures to align properly, everything was working fine. Prior to show time, my first light fixture/moving head still moves and I can see that the internal goboís and color selection is moving within the unit, but there is no light coming out. All the rest of the light fixtures worked perfectly fine the rest of the evening. This is the first time Iíve ever encountered something like this.

Unfortunately I didnít have the proper tools to completely open up the cases of where the lightbulb is located and I didnít smell anything out of the ordinary. My first instinct is that the lightbulb has gone out?.... However I wonít know until a week from now when I get back into town.

It had close to 50 hours of work time on the original lightbulb. Is this something thatís pretty common with some of these light fixtures?

Any additional information would be greatly helpful.

First thing is tell us the make and model. Otherwise, we donít know about ďthese light fixturesĒ.

Hi Sam, at only 50hrs it most definitely shouldnít be the lamp. Most of the Philips ďRĒ lamps are good for at least 2-3000hrs with some models specíd even higher. Do you know if this was a genuine name brand lamp? Discharge lamps donít usually die a sudden quiet death either.

My first thought is a fuse. Many moving lights have a lamp fuse separate from the PCB and motor fuses, so itís possible to have lost that yet still had motion from the fixture. After that, check for loose wires and junctions. If itís still no good, start swapping parts from a working unit to the dead unit until you find the culprit. Iíd start with lamp/socket first, then ballast, then PCB(s). Without knowing more thatís about the best I can offer. Hope this helps!

Hi Sam, at only 50hrs it most definitely shouldnít be the lamp. Most of the Philips ďRĒ lamps are good for at least 2-3000hrs with some models specíd even higher. Do you know if this was a genuine name brand lamp? Discharge lamps donít usually die a sudden quiet death either.

My first thought is a fuse. Many moving lights have a lamp fuse separate from the PCB and motor fuses, so itís possible to have lost that yet still had motion from the fixture. After that, check for loose wires and junctions. If itís still no good, start swapping parts from a working unit to the dead unit until you find the culprit. Iíd start with lamp/socket first, then ballast, then PCB(s). Without knowing more thatís about the best I can offer. Hope this helps!

Hi Jeff,I dont believe these are Genuine Phillips bulbs at all... To give you some additional info, here is a link that I purchased from:

Thanks Sam. According to the link it advertises an Osram 7R (which is still name brand). I'd suggest popping it open to see if it's indeed a genuine lamp...not that it would make any difference given that I'm sure you won't get much support on these either way. You can try just re-seating the lamp in the socket or switching lamps between units since no real disassembly is require to do that, otherwise I'd get to work checking the things outlined in my first post. Good luck!

Iíve had a pair of 230 W moving heads for about a year now, they have worked flawlessly. Naturally, I was setting up for a New Yearís event and I had the hanging off of my back truss, Sound check and re-programming some of the fixtures to align properly, everything was working fine. Prior to show time, my first light fixture/moving head still moves and I can see that the internal goboís and color selection is moving within the unit, but there is no light coming out.

Perhaps the lamp just needed to be restruck. I had the same thing happen with a disccharge fixture at an event in the fall.. one of the bulbs went out while I was programming. The fix was easy enough just turned off the fixture for 5 minutes to let the lamp cool off and when I powered it up again all was well. So when you get a chance just power it up, you may find it works fine now.

Perhaps the lamp just needed to be restruck. I had the same thing happen with a disccharge fixture at an event in the fall.. one of the bulbs went out while I was programming. The fix was easy enough just turned off the fixture for 5 minutes to let the lamp cool off and when I powered it up again all was well. So when you get a chance just power it up, you may find it works fine now.

Thanks for the reply fellas, I appreciate it.

I'm located in NorCal (San Jose, Ca) and the fixture is in LA (Los Angeles) inside my trailer, we have another show down there next weekend (didnt want to drag my trailer and gear another 6 hours back home) so I won't be able to get to it until then. I also ordered a few extra 7R 230 watt bulbs just in case it IS indeed blown and they should be here by Monday..

I will have an update after next weekend and hopefully it's a good update.

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Hope that works out! One other thought came to mind when reading Paulís comment - while a heathy fixture and lamp should never go dark unexpectedly, were there any other fixtures or equipment on the same circuit that could have caused a momentary drop in voltage? I had an instance once where firing up 1200w of halogen effect lights on the same circuit as a few 150w discharge moving heads would occasionally cause a lamp to extinguish. Just more food for thought!

Hope that works out! One other thought came to mind when reading Paulís comment - while a heathy fixture and lamp should never go dark unexpectedly, were there any other fixtures or equipment on the same circuit that could have caused a momentary drop in voltage? I had an instance once where firing up 1200w of halogen effect lights on the same circuit as a few 150w discharge moving heads would occasionally cause a lamp to extinguish. Just more food for thought!

Hi Jeff,Electrical is always something that is always on my mind when running my amplification or lighting fixtures. I had two of the four fixtures on two separate receptacles and all the others were working totally fine that rest of the night. So had it been a power surge or drop I would have seen the issue with the others on that same circuit as well.. I try and separate everything as much as possible when I dont have my distro box/panel.

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Some Chinese fixtures don't come with much in the way of (or any) instructions. If this is the case, raising a specific fader may signal a lamp to turn off (or on to restart) at a specified DMX level. It is usually a fader at or near the end of the chain of control faders. I've had customers bring lights in with that "feature" (or problem) that they didn't know about. I've also seen a lot of problems with the nylon covered "butt" crimp connectors, especially those located in the moving yolk portion of the light. The connector wasn't crimped tightly enough and some wires pull out with a very light touch.

Hey Sam. Is it possible your lights have a cool down setting? My big Chauvet movers have a setting for shutting off the lamp while the fans continue to run so as to cool the lamp down before shutting the unit completely off. Supposed to extend the life of the lamps.

Even if your movers have this setting, not sure how it would have gotten into that setting without you doing it.